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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ellijay Apple Festival

My family and I took off for the mountains (literally) Saturday. We headed up to the Ellijay Apple Festival, just to see what we could see. We'd been once before, though it had been many years since then. My husband and I debated how many, but figure at least 5 years. If you go, plan to encounter some traffic on the main strip while you try to get to parking. There is plenty and they have shuttle buses running to. Check out their web site for more info.

This is a view of the fair itself from the hill going up toward the Middle/High shool.

We didn't stop here long, but watching someone carve with a chainsaw is always fascinating to me

As with any large fair, there's crafts galore. I loved this booth. This statue made me think of "Night in the Museum". When I turned to my son, we both said "DumDum gimme GumGum"..

A local wildlife rescue group was out there showing some of the animals that reside at their facility. Each animal has a story, one that's quite sad considering. Most were due to humans (not surprising) doing something they shouldn't.

On the way out, we headed further into the mountains to go visit family in the Chatsworth area. The town of Ellijay itself had an extension of the fair going on, with streets closed and more vendors. Of course, since it's the Apple festival, quite a few orchards had stands in both places, so a wide selection of apple varieties were available. All around town you could also find these guys..

I didn't get a chance to get pictures of all the different set-ups and arrangements, but it looks like most of the store fronts had one. Some local businesses without storefronts had them as well. Most were on the main square, but some were on side streets as well. If you have the chance, you might see the festival itself, then drive over to main street and wander there too.